Queensland farmers win national innovation award

QUEENSLAND farmers Charles and Elizabeth Frith and Tim Scott have taken out the prestigious Value Adding Award under the NFF/DAFF 2009 Innovation in Agriculture Awards, announced last night at a gala ceremony at the Brisbane Convention Centre attended by over 300 guests.

Tim, who accepted the Award, is pictured between NFF President David Crombie [left] and Senator Glenn Sterle who filled in for Agriculture Minister Tony Burke, who was a late withdrawal. Photo downloadable below.

The National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) and Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) have combined to establish the national awards to recognise and encourage the pursuit of excellence through innovative farming practises, held as part of the NFF’s annual National Congress.

This year three honours have been conferred under the Awards, one in each of the Value Adding, New Technology Sustainability categories.

Combining existing technologies, the Beef Stock Market enables all Australians to own, track and sell beef cattle over the Internet. Coupled with this, a beef cattle fattening service, providing a hassle-free environment for running stock, the service will even sell cattle on the client’s behalf.

Charles and Elizabeth Frith and Tim Scott, based at Amamoor in Queensland’s Mary Valley, have applied the Internet, in conjunction with the National Livestock Identification Scheme (NLIS) technologies and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), to open investment in the cattle industry to anyone… and not just farmers.

The Beef Stock Market, in taking out the Value Adding Award, runs up to 5,000 head of cattle at any one time on land owned by farmers across Australia, and allows online clients to purchase, manage and monitor cattle while they are fatten to a suitable sale weight.

The use of NLIS technology and the Internet means the Beef Stock Market and its clients can monitor the performance of each individual animal as it develops for sale, without having to physically sight the cattle.

The traceability of each animal through the supply chain is transparent, cost-effective and a huge marketing coup – especially on the international trading scene, providing customers with certainty over the movements, health, wellbeing and verification of each animal.

Growing in popularity as a platform for trading cattle, the Beef Stock Market is perpetually over-subscribed. More than 400 people currently own cattle through the Beef Stock Market, and almost 1,500 are registered to receive updates as more cattle become available.

“The Beef Stock Market embodies the goal of the Value Adding Award by taking a range of existing technologies and applying them in meeting customer demands – both through ease of doing business and servicing ‘arm chair’ investors, as well as providing certainty over the quality of stock,” NFF President David Crombie said.

“It is not only an innovative approach to managing cattle for everyone – farmers and lay investors, alike – but opens up and promotes agriculture to broader investment opportunities. An excellent innovation.”

The aim of the Value Adding Award is to recognise those farmers that have excelled in the provision of food or fibre that demonstrates excellence in forward planning to provide for customer (or end consumer) needs. This Award recognises the entire farm production system, from production methods to marketing programs, to create a ‘value adding’ proposition in the marketplace – be it domestic, international or both.

The NFF welcomes the Australian Government’s involvement as the official 2009 Awards sponsor – through the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry’s (DAFF’s) Australia’s Farming Future initiative.